The news that matters to South AmericaNetworks hope to compete with CNN, BBC while airing stories that define Latin region

The comparison may not be perfect, but officials of two new television networks, slated to start broadcasting across South America sometime this year, say they have the same underlying goal as the 24-hour Arabic-language news channel: more local control of the images and words that define their region on the small screen, and less dependence on foreign-based satellite TV giants.

In other words: more coverage of elections in Montevideo or bullfighting in Bogota, and less focus on distant happenings such as the Michael Jackson trial.

"We need to see a point of view that comes from South America, not from Europe or the United States," said Aram Aharonian, director of Telesur, a network based in Venezuela that hopes to launch in May. "Why can't we have our own point of view?"

Both Telesur and TV Brasil, based in the Brazilian capital, are government-funded projects. They are products of a philosophy that is spreading throughout South America, fueled by governments that seek more economic and cultural independence from Europe and the United States.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is helping guide the creation of Telesur, has long pressed for alternative sources of information that can compete with such networks as CNN and the BBC. In recent months, the project has received pledges of financial and technical support from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and other neighbors.

The leaders of those countries might not speak with the fiery flair of the populist Chavez, but each has indicated reluctance to surrender to the ebbs and flows of free market forces generated in wealthy, first-world countries.

One of the hopes driving both networks, organizers said, is that they might help achieve more unity among the region's nations, with an eye toward the kind of clout wielded by members of the European Union.

At TV Brasil, executives hope to form partnerships with existing channels in the region, and they will travel to neighboring countries this spring to work out the details. Both they and Telesur executives say they will not be rivals, but rather partners in showing the world through Latin American eyes.

Last week, media executives watched videotape from TV Brasil's first test broadcast, transmitted via satellite in January from the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.

The tape provided what they called a good preview of what the station might be like — a mix of newscasts and public television-style cultural programming and documentaries.

As with al-Jazeera — which is funded by the government of Qatar and has been criticized frequently by U.S. officials for what they call inflammatory or biased reporting — some analysts are raising questions about whether the new Latin American networks will be able to provide independent and evenhanded news coverage. They wonder, for example, if Chavez's fervent rhetoric will find its way onto the 24-hour network he is backing.